In conventional computer systems, a computer application may request a file and an operating system and/or a disk or hardware controller may be operable to retrieve the file from a disk. Scenarios exist where all or most of the files on a disk are accessed. Examples where most or all files in a filesystem are accessed include an anti-virus scan where most or all files on a filesystem may be analyzed for virus infection, or a backup procedure where most or all files on a disk are copied to another disk or other medium. In these scenarios, most or all of the files are accessed. In most cases, the filesystem is traversed sequentially, and access is done without knowledge of a physical location of the files on the disk. This sequential traversal may unnecessarily prolong the process, as significant delay may be added by rearranging a read/write mechanism of the disk to read files that are fragmented or are logically out of order. Seek times for disk drives, especially spinning platter magnetic drives, are orders of magnitude larger than many other types of memory access or the processing capabilities of modern processors.
In view of the foregoing, it may be understood that there are significant problems and shortcomings associated with current disk access technologies.